| Basics |
|
Who am I?
E-Mail Me |
| Links |
|
My Other Blog
The Socialism of Fools johnpaulpagano Blogroll Kerry Howley Luke Ford Michael Totten Norman Geras (RIP) Terry Glavin Undercover Black Man (RIP) Great Writers Christopher Hitchens (RIP) Oliver Kamm (Sadly, pay) Columnists Anne Applebaum Jeffrey Goldberg Journals & Commentary The Atlantic Butterflies and Wheels Dissent Magazine Fathom Journal Moment Magazne Tablet Magazine The New Yorker The Tower Magazine |
|
|
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Unpacking Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens describes waterboarding in the way only a great writer can ("a huge, wet paw... suddenly and annihilatingly clamped..."). Surely though, there is something pompous about "Graydon Carter [asking] writer Christopher Hitchens if he would be willing to subject himself to the form of torture known as waterboarding" -- as if Vanity Fair was proposing to host a sommelier's sip-off of Istrian upstarts. But this is often how Hitchens is delivered to your doorstep: ensconced in a cheese paper wrap of boomer pretension. In turn I think this overlays a greater flaw: Hitchens' inadequate public reckoning with his support for Bush's Iraq war. George Packer unpacks this and more here.
From Andrew Sullivan.
Unpacking Hitchens
In this pregnant darkness, head downward, I waited for a while until I abruptly felt a slow cascade of water going up my nose. Determined to resist if only for the honor of my navy ancestors who had so often been in peril on the sea, I held my breath for a while and then had to exhale and —- as you might expect —- inhale in turn. The inhalation brought the damp cloths tight against my nostrils, as if a huge, wet paw had been suddenly and annihilatingly clamped over my face. Unable to determine whether I was breathing in or out, and flooded more with sheer panic than with mere water, I triggered the pre-arranged signal and felt the unbelievable relief of being pulled upright and having the soaking and stifling layers pulled off me. I find I don’t want to tell you how little time I lasted.
Christopher Hitchens describes waterboarding in the way only a great writer can ("a huge, wet paw... suddenly and annihilatingly clamped..."). Surely though, there is something pompous about "Graydon Carter [asking] writer Christopher Hitchens if he would be willing to subject himself to the form of torture known as waterboarding" -- as if Vanity Fair was proposing to host a sommelier's sip-off of Istrian upstarts. But this is often how Hitchens is delivered to your doorstep: ensconced in a cheese paper wrap of boomer pretension. In turn I think this overlays a greater flaw: Hitchens' inadequate public reckoning with his support for Bush's Iraq war. George Packer unpacks this and more here.
From Andrew Sullivan.
Labels: Christopher Hitchens, george packer, war on terror
 |